This is Nimisha Kalra Sehgal, your quintessential Indian girl newly married, and absolutely in love. The thing about being in love these days is that your romancing will happen online. The quintessential Indian is not tracing romantic shayaris in the sand nor are they strumming sitars under the shimmering pale moonlight.
No, the shayaris come in the form of cute emoticons, GIFs, SMS, audio and video – ephemeral and the permanent kind.
In retrospect, it’s rather quizzical how romance gone digital is now extended to wedding planning gone digital. Nowadays, not only can you have an entire relationship online, but you can also plan an entire wedding by typing on your smartphone.
Nimisha here bears witness to that. After a long period as friends, she and her sweetheart moved to the “it’s complicated” status to the “in a relationship” stage all online. After the wedding plans were set, things didn’t come offline into the real world. All her wedding planning happened online as well. A wise choice most would say. Planning a big, beautiful Indian wedding isn’t the most stress free thing in the world.
How did you and your intended meet? How did you guys decide to get married?
We met each other through a mutual friend. We instantly clicked and became really good friends. He was dating another girl and I was his go-to person for any relationship advice and he eventually realized how we were very compatible with each other and how our relationship had grown beyond just friendship. For this and a few other reason, he broke up with his girlfriend and straight away proposed marriage to me. And I agreed! Because it felt right.
It’s been over a year since that day and I haven’t regretted that decision for a minute.
Date of wedding? Locations picked? How long did you have to plan?
10th March, 2017.
Wedding destination – A banquet near my place
We had over a year to plan the wedding
Who is planning it? Are you getting involved in all the planning?
I planned it along with my family
In any of the things you’re planning, how did you communicate and coordinate?
I either called or texted, but mostly used WhatsApp because we needed to immediately send pictures/videos and location to make sure ‘bridal logistics operations’ were in place and happening on time.
How has the technology helped you in all this? Did using WhatsApp make things easier?
Planning a wedding is the most stressful thing to do more so because it involves a lot of coordination. Accurate communication down to the tiniest detail is necessary to make sure we were able to get things done the way I wanted it done (it’s my day, after all!).
I had a separate group for everything be it for my bachelorette, for mehendi styles, to plan dance performances or anything else and it really helped me a lot in getting everything organized smoothly. There were times when things went slightly awry and not according to plan, but where apps like WhatsApp actually came in handy to make coordination quick and easy.
For instance, during the ring ceremony the person who was responsible for getting the sweets got pulled over for speeding and couldn't reach us, because the venue had poor phone connectivity. He immediately WhatsApped us about his situation and shared his location and we sent someone over to help him.
The newest way to plan your shaadi has just entered the building.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
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